Faith & RitualGreek → English
Apse
/æps/noun
The vaulted semicircular recess at the end of a church, usually holding the altar.
The Greek roots
ἁψίς
hapsís
arch, loop, wheel rim
ἅπτειν
háptein
to fasten, join
Literally: “a joining, a loop”
The story of the word
ἁψίς was a loop, an arch, the rim of a wheel, anything bent round and fastened at the join. Astronomers kept the Latin form: the apsides of an orbit are its turning points, nearest and farthest, which is why an aphelion has the same ancestor as a cathedral. The verb behind it, ἅπτειν, to fasten, also gives synapse, the place where two nerve cells make contact without quite touching.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- 19th century
Same family
apsissynapsehaptic
In a sentence
The mosaic in the apse survived when the roof came down.
A Norman apse was replaced by a square east end in the fifteenth century.